Ask Prof. Felten About DMCA's Effects

Princeton Computer Science Professor Edward W. Felten has been mentioned and quoted frequently on Slashdot, usually about DMCA matters and, more recently, about new state laws that may make it illegal to use "unapproved" networking devices, VPNs or firewalls with your home or office Internet connection. Please avoid questions that can be answered by reading the pages linked to here or with a bit of Google research. We'll post Prof. Felten's answers to 10 of the highest-moderated questions as soon as he has time to answer them.

Comments

Hey, you're a teacher, right?

[Skyshadow]

Given that the things we need to do in our jobs will be illegal in a couple of years, (a) which other fields would you recommend getting into and (b) when should we start going to the local tech school to pick up the training we'll need to make it in our new careers?

Better yet, are there any other countries that have eqivalent programs to our H1-B system? I could always go live as an indentured servant to an American software company overseas.

If this fall through, however, I have dibbs on learning to rebuild engines for a living.

Will ISPs exercise more restrictove TOS now?

[frdmfghtr]

The ability to share a high-speed connection with all the computers in the same household is one of the selling points of broadband, much as the ability to provide analog cable service to all the TVs in a house.

Do you see ISPs taking advantage of the new rules to force customers to purchase additional IPs to connect all the machines in the house, or will they recognize one of the selling points of broadband and permit multiple PCs on a single cable modem?

Re:What sort of positive legistlation?

[Anonymous Coward]

.44 Magnum Slugs, hollow pointed. You can soothe their minds when they're plastered all over the wall behind them. Same goes for the RIAA and MPAA.

Flamebait, sure, but it does make me wonder how far we'll allow politicians to damage both our freedom and our ability to earn a living at the behest of their corporate masters.

Unfortunately, I think this willingness to bend over and take it is reasonably high; the fact that guys like Ken Lay are still walking around indicates that the number of nuts per thousand is lower than I generally suspect it is.

Still, if you voted to extend the DMCA, for one of those UCITA bills or supported the H1-B program or any other bad policy that's going to result in a loss of tech industry jobs among Americans in the middle of this recession, you should probably be worried. I suspect you can only push a group of people so far before individual members start identifying you specifically as the cause of their problems.

Re:DMCA and other laws

[arkanes]

You've got a valid point, but you need to change your wording - nobody gives (or at least, nobody SHOULD give) a shit whether or not media conglomerates find it acceptable. The point of copyright, the very reason for it's existence, and it's only useful function, is to expand the public domain. It does this by offering a limited monopoly in return for the release of works. This is inherently in opposition to the buisness model of many media congolomerates, which is why we're seeing such draconian IP legislation in the last few years.

The ONLY important question in IP legislation is whether or not it will enhance the public domain. Whether anyone can make money, or whether the existing entertainment industry can adapt is totally irrelevent.

This is why (legally protected) DRM is such a bad thing - because it limits access to work far beyond the limits of copyright, and therefore detracts from the public domain, rather than adding to it.

The idea that media conglomerats have some sort of rights here is a fundamental falsehood, and it only makes it harder to focus on the true issues. Copyright law doesn't care if anyone makes money off of it. The buisness interests of anyone, musician or international megacorporation, do not and should not figure into the equation at all.

MOD THIS UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

This post is right on target, mod this up so that others can see it and take note!